Post Description

A throwback to the affecting grunge days of the ’90s can surely never be a bad thing, particularly when the group doing it are Australian longhairs Tumbleweed. Unbreakable and resolute, penetrative and industrial with guitar use, the band has forever had its own sound within the genre. That stoner-rock tag has never really left them; if anything it defines them and, now, five records into a career spanning 23 years, Sounds from the Other Side hits harder than ever.
It’s the first time in 18 years that the original line-up has recorded together and they’ve gone back to producer Paul McKercher, the man behind 1995’s breakthrough Galactaphonic to take care of that old, familiar, grimy feel. McKercher again records to two-inch tape and manages to gratifyingly replicate that era. There’s nothing postmodern about this album and there isn’t supposed to be. For the most part, this is unalloyed rock ’n’ roll that pays respect to the band’s finest hour.

There’s still polish here though; it isn’t all riffarama and cavalier sonics. A wild, bluesy swagger radiates over the course of the almost hour-long record, pop-ish elements (‘Drop in the Ocean’, ‘ESP’) skulk through and there appears to be some kind of nod to Queens of the Stone Age’s formative record, Songs for the Deaf. Singer Richie Lewis, guitarists Paul Hausmeister and Lenny Curley and company even revisit unused material from the band’s 1995 album to frame the release.

Intriguingly for Tumbleweed, and marking perhaps their biggest ever musical experiment, ‘Drop in the Ocean’ retains a Bowie-esque ‘Heroes’ tinge to the structure of the melody. Complete with muttered, psychedelic spoken word, this is arguably the record’s acme and presents the grunge-y buggers in a whole new light. They do shoot straight into ‘Hillbilly Headbanger’ and ‘Queen of Voodoo’ soon after, so all is not lost for diehard fans looking for their meat-and-spuds rock.

Tracklisting:
1. Tumbleweed - Mandelbrot (3:11)
2. Tumbleweed - Sweet Little Runaway (3:23)
3. Tumbleweed - Mountain (6:59)
4. Tumbleweed - Like a Night Owl (3:38)
5. Tumbleweed - Dirty Little Secret (3:55)
6. Tumbleweed - Drop in the Ocean (4:36)
7. Tumbleweed - Wildfire (4:03)
8. Tumbleweed - Hillbilly Headbanger (4:11)
9. Tumbleweed - Queen of Voodoo (3:30)
10. Tumbleweed - Good and Evil (6:05)
11. Tumbleweed - Down and Dirty (3:23)
12. Tumbleweed - Bird of Prey (5:27)
13. Tumbleweed - ESP (7:04)

Extra Informatie:
Aantal Discs: 1xCD
Genre: Indie Rock
Format: MP3 @ 320kbit
Year of Release: 2013
Speelduur: 59 minuten
Cover: Front is in de RARs verwerkt